Syrian medics are trying to rescue one opposition fighter, who is in critical condition, after inhaling poisonous gas unleashed by the President Bashar al-Assad regime in the central city of Homs. (Al Arabiya)

(Jerusalem) – Palestinian armed groups in Gaza violated the laws of war during the November 2012 fighting by launching hundreds of rockets toward population centers in Israel.
About 1,500 rockets were fired at Israel between November 14 and 21, the Israel Defense Forces reported. At least 800 struck Israel, including 60 that hit populated areas.
The rocket attacks, including the first from Gaza to strike the Tel Aviv and Jerusalem areas, killed three Israeli civilians, wounded at least 38, several seriously, and destroyed civilian property. Rockets that fell short of their intended targets in Israel apparently killed at least two Palestinians in Gaza and wounded others, Human Rights Watch said.

DECEMBER 12, 2012—Tens of thousands of people, many of them wounded, are trapped by intense fighting and bombing in Deir Azzour, a city in eastern Syria, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said today, while calling for the evacuation of the injured and sick to safety and for international medical teams be allowed to work in the war-torn city.

An MSF team unofficially visited Deir Azzour governorate in late November to evaluate needs in the isolated, war-ravaged region. It was too dangerous for the team to enter the city of Deir Azzour, home to a reported 600,000 people prior to the conflict. Local residents reported that tens of thousands of people remain trapped in the city, which is shelled and bombed daily. Those remaining are predominantly poor and elderly, unable or unwilling to leave and now extremely vulnerable. Despite support from an organization of Syrian doctors, it is virtually impossible to obtain medical supplies in Deir Azzour.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Female Genital Mutilation: An Islamic Crime

Asia News recently reported how the misogynist crime of female genital mutilation (FGM) continues to be a “widespread traditional practice” in “rural areas and more remote areas of Indonesia, particularly the island of Java.” The story makes sure to remind us, naturally, that while this crime is being perpetrated in a Muslim country, the crime “is not a rule set in a rigid manner by the precepts of Islam.” It is only widespread, we are consoled, because of the actions of “the more extreme and integral fringe.”In her coverage of this news report, freedom fighter Pamela Geller shrewdly asks the key question that somehow mysteriously eludes the minds of every breathing human being in our mainstream media: “The fringe made it widespread?”Indeed, if only the “extreme and integral fringe” supports this sadistic and vicious crime against women, and if it is “not a rule set in a rigid manner by the precepts of Islam,” then where are all the Muslim imams, muftis and clerics in the world, and in Indonesia in particular, vociferously denouncing and repudiating this crime as un-Islamic and coming to the defense of Muslim women?

That Susan Rice either willfully misled the American people on the Benghazi attacks, or lazily absorbed intelligence briefings without the least bit of personal involvement, is obvious. That she was covering for the Obama Administration in denying a terror attack just weeks before the election is speculative but likely. That she does not, therefore, deserve to become Secretary of State is arguable.

But what is not arguable is that she deserves to be denied the post for a different reason altogether: Rwanda. What emerges when taken together--Rice’s weak response in Benghazi, blaming the murder of four Americans on a stupid video, and her shameful lack of action in the Rwandan genocide--is a career diplomat of singular weakness, lacking the spine or muscularity to assert American moral influence in the world.

Pluto, the Planet of Evolutionary Transformation

Pluto in its highest astrological or symbolic aspect, in the Jungian sense, is the planet of evolution, urging us to be all that Nature and the Cosmos intended us to be. This is right in our DNA according to esoteric Yogic science and tradition, which teach that the actual energy of transformation lies dormant at the base of our spine.